Singapore: Brunch on Dempsey Road

Last weekend we took a quick trip to Singapore for various reasons, including seeing and experiencing things we can’t easily find in Jakarta. Although we have Koi Kafe to hold us over at home, one of the things on our to do list was a nice brunch. With Cynthia’s life-long friend, Tania, as our guide we headed to the inner-city oasis, Dempsey Road. Our brunch at Jones the Grocer was a beautiful but simple combination of fresh, high quality ingredients. Although the meal left a bit to be desired, the casual gourmet atmosphere kept us at our table for almost 2 hours. Afterwards we strolled around the Dempsey Hill complex to find several other restaurants, shops, and a couple galleries. Camp, a restaurant/ bar with creatively themed private rooms such as the “Kubrick” room was another great find. On our way back down Dempsey Rd. we stopped by the mid-century styled PS. Café to enjoy a quick drink on their deck, and the view overlooking a shady hillside and lush trees.

Shots of our breakfast at Jones

Heading down to Camp. Sorry, no interior photos allowed.

PS. Cafe. This photo doesn't do the place justice! Check out the website to get a better idea.

By the way...

I'd like to introduce the latest addition to our family. This is Coco.

Agrikulture photo shoot

Last week I did a fun photo shoot with my brother-in-law's band, Agrikulture. Check out this posting on the Future 10 forum for behind the scenes shots.

KidZania

We recently took our niece and nephew to Kidzania, a new establishment in Jakarta. It's a crazy half sized world, free of adults but full of grown-up activities. After buying their ticket, the kids enter through a scaled-down replica of an Air Asia airport terminal. They start their new lives with 50 Kidzos (the local currency). After depositing it into the bank, they take their atm cards and spend to their heart's content. Of course, you have the choice of buying fake groceries, going to the salon, or even buying real burgers from the restaurant. Once the kids run out of money, they can work in any of these places to make their money back. Just like the real world, the salon charges 10 kidzos, but only pays the employees 8! Local and international branding is plastered in every possible corner, from the candy factory to the Honda dealership and Pertamina gas station. The little town is complete with a hospital, theater, fire and police stations, and a printed newspaper with kid reporters. Originally starting in Mexico, Kidzania also has locations in Japan. Check out the photos...

Alexia checking out

And enjoying a relaxing time in the salon

Firekids get ready to spray a burning building (real water, fake flames)

Filling up the Honda CRV

Xavier went to Driving school and got his license

Gabbie changing a newborn in the hospital nursery

Future surgeons of Jakarta

Furniture expo in Jakarta

The idea of a furniture expo in Jakarta usually makes me think of handicrafts and batik everything. Although 90% of the show was exactly what I expected, I was extremely surprised by the feature pavilion's focus on contemporary Indonesian design. Alvin Tjitrowirjo, Jakarta's best young furniture designer and friend of ours, blew the competition away with his range of sleek, modern pieces. Even the dramatic exhibition hall interior was designed by the progressive local architect Andra Matin.

Main entrance to the exhibit

Alvin T. in his fiberglass and leather Snug chair

"Soiree" modular bench (Alvin T.)

Wooden Radio by G Mango

Intimate Distance

We recently attended a show at the Galeri Nasional Indonesia, called Intimate Distance, Indonesian Women Artists. The opening event launched a new book entitled “Indonesian Women Artists: The Curtain Opens”, featuring over 30 contemporary Indonesian female artists. The work ranged from mediocre abstract sculpture and living room art, to highly conceptual and feminist works. Considering that Indonesia is a conservative, patriarchal Muslim society, we felt that the show was socially significant. Even within Indonesia’s small world of “high” art, women artists are rarely seen. Several artists here are obviously rich housewives, but their money helps fuel the art economy and supports younger artists. More power to them… anything to help make art accessible.

Here are a few shots of pieces we liked…

VideoBabes: Ariani Darmawan/ Prilla Tania, Orchestration, 2007

Melati Suryodarmo, Illumination, 2007

This was one of my favorites, but I don't know the artists name.

Interior view of passports above. Those are smashed mosquitoes.

Astari Rasjid, Horas, 2007

Tiarma D. Sirait, Love Me, 2007

Droog Does Jakarta

A while ago I posted about Droog Designers Niels van Eijk and Miriam vander Lubb and the table they created in Bali. Well, this month Erasmus Huis (Dutch Cultural Center, Jakarta) has a Droog Design show where we were lucky enough to see the table in person. The previous pictures (taken from the website) really didn’t do this piece justice! The table is way bigger than I imagined, and much more detailed than those pictures show. Truly Impressive!

Several other Droog designs were featured in the show, some that I’ve seen and others that I haven’t. We really enjoyed the presentation. It wasn’t overdone, but made good use of the small space. The gallery was divided by modular chain link fences with sculpted objects like a couch, rocking horse, moose head and doghouse protruding from them. See below for visual references.

One-Man Circus

Another event on CCF’s Printemps Francais calendar was a contemporary one-man circus. It was a simple and elegant performance with little more than a balloon, a rope and 3 sheets of plywood as props. The minimal lighting setup included the low-tech psychedelic staple: an overhead projector with colored oil dripping into clear water. The show was mesmerizing and left us feeling refreshed. We realized that it doesn’t take much to impress us… just a little bit of genuine creativity.

Paint by Number Project

For one of our latest projects we were asked to curate an art show inspired by DJ Missill’s graphic art and graffiti work. In an attempt to go beyond the standard “graffiti art show” we decided to mix the mid-century phenomenon, paint-by-numbers, with contemporary art styles. Jakarta based artists, Sanchia, Lisza, Wormo, and Rayray all submitted illustrations of female characters to be converted to a paint-by number outlines and shown along side one of DJ Missill’s own.

During the event, we invited a bunch of artsy girls to fill in the outlines while the crowd (mostly guys) sat back and watched. Even though each image was numbered with a color guide, it was perfectly ignored to create entirely new versions of the work. As the night went on and the drinks kept flowing, the artwork became more and more outrageous. The result was an over the top, out of control female frenzy… exactly what we wanted!

Thanks to the artists, all of our lovely painters, 707. WhatNot, Soul Menace, Future 10, and CCF. Oh, and thanks to the GIRLS!

DJ Missill bombing her own work

DJ Missill

Last weekend CCF (French Cultural Center, Jakarta) brought DJ Missill, a graffiti artist-DJ-Producer. This young hyper-active renaissance woman is currently touring Indonesia as a part of the annual Printemp Francais cultural festival. We were lucky to meet and hang out with her after an artist talk held by CCF. Afterwards she was invited to an impromptu graffiti session under a nearby bridge alongside a local graffiti crew and artists from IKJ (Jakarta Art Institute).

Later in the evening, she played an awesome mash-up DJ set at a club called Public while we put together a live paint-by-numbers art show.